We now return to (semi) regularly scheduled programming

Hi! Howdy! Long time no see! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Holy Crap it’s 2013!

Yes, I sort of dropped off the face of the Earth. Or, at least I appeared to here. In reality, I am too heavily grounded to drop off the face of anything. See what I mean?

This is from Thanksgiving, when I spent the hour before dinner in a cooking frenzy because Mike informed me the turkey was going to be ready an hour before I anticipated. Hence the rosy freak out flush in my cheeks.

Right around Thanksgiving is when I started to write this post, by the way. It’s been sitting in my “drafts” file for an embarassingly long time. I’m so much bigger now.

See

Graham took these fuzzy iPhone photos last week. They’re not great, but I’m trying to remember to document this last baby. It seems like it will last forever (37 days to go!), but it’s going to be over so fast. Kind of like the last few months of 2012!

I’m not sure many (any???) of you care what’s been going on since I last posted, but it feels kind of strange to just start up posting without some kind of highlights post. So here goes. Feel free to skim.

First of all, just before Thanksgiving, the whole house came down with a nasty stomach bug, one by one, over three weeks. Week #1 kids (and kind of me), week #2 totally me, week #3 Mike. So awful, I was traumatized for weeks.

After barf-ageddon 2012, we enjoyed some really nice family time. We did some hiking in Boulder, traipsed around downtown Denver, relaxed over Thanksgiving, and had killer seats at a Denver Nuggets game where no child whined or complained or begged for food.

Hiking in Boulder

Graham on the train to downtown

Boys playing football in the park

Turkey Time!

Caveman

I noticed on several occasions, that time seemed to slow down, and moments really resonated with me. (Read this great post by Glennon Melton at Momastery where she talks about Chronos and Kairos time). I felt content, and so grateful– we were getting out, exploring and enjoying life. I was also feeling a little better physically, and starting to get really excited about the baby.

I was also adjusting to some changes we made around here late last year. For various reasons I won’t bore you with, we decided to take Graham out of preschool (he was going three full days a week), and keep him at home for now. I was slightly panicked by this decision. I was afraid I would have no time to myself, that I would not be able to get any work done, and that I would go a little stir-crazy as a full-time mom. I know a lot of people love  or wish they could have that lifestyle, and I am thankful that I have the choice. But I have always wanted to balance my kid-time with work-time, as I feel passionately about my chosen profession. I also have concluded that I am a better mom when I work some hours outside the home. I appreciate my kid-time, have more patience, and feel more productive and upbeat. That’s just me. You do what works for you.

That’s why I’ve been pleasantly shocked to see that I’ve slid into full-time mom mode with ease and dare I say contentment. Maybe it’s because I know this time with Graham won’t last much longer–soon a new baby will be here, demanding so much time and energy, and Graham will be starting Kindergarten. Maybe it’s because I’m kind of in nesting mode, in the last weeks of my pregnancy. Or maybe, it’s just because I’m so damn tired, I can’t think about much else than taking care of the immediate needs of my family.

Whatever the reason, I just didn’t feel inspired or compelled to write for awhile. No big decision, just didn’t post. Oh yeah, I also had a few weeks of pre-term labor scares, where I was having a lot of contractions, and the threat of 3 months of bed rest loomed large. Obviously, it all worked out.

Once I was in the clear, I savored my ability to, you know, get up and walk around even more:

FREEZING ocean play in Carlsbad, CA

Big belly on the beach

Remembering what sand feels like

Christmas baking and silliness

Good old Morgan

Decorating the tree while photog Garrett snaps away. This is the most flattering of the bunch. Yikes!

Maxy, always watching

Christmas morning moments and a new mug handmade for Daddy by Garrett (yes, that’s a fish)

Finally, snow, and a new sled to try out

Can’t you just FEEL the cold?

After a wonderful few weeks of home, family, and holidays, 2012 went out with a whisper at our house. That is what happens when you are pregnant. I have high hopes for next New Year’s Eve!

The last few weeks have been spent preparing for the new baby: cooking and freezing red meat (it’s a weird thing I seem to do when faced with childbirth), agonizing over car seat patterns (hormones manifesting in strange ways), cleaning, organizing, and throwing things away. Oh how I love to throw things away!

I’ve also been thinking a lot about my goals for the upcoming year. Not resolutions, exactly, but more like the big picture of what I want to accomplish, where I want to direct my (likely limited) energy, and what feels important to me right now. I don’t have any concrete answers yet; I’ve learned that with a new baby, you never know exactly how things are going to shake out. But I have written some things down. There may even be a detailed list of pros and cons in a notebook somewhere. I’ll keep you posted as my plans start to take shape.

I do know, however, that this blog still means something to me. I plan to continue posting, though I can’t promise with any great regularity in the next couple of months. It’s also possible that the content may vary a little more than in the past.

The main focus will still be health, fitness, and wellness, but the lens through which I view those topics will be changing and evolving over the course of this year. For example, you can be certain that at some point after I get the all-clear to exercise (I’m having a scheduled c-section), I will be hitting it . . . HARD. Expect some major posts about diet, exercise, recovery, core muscles, etc. But the more I read, learn, and experience, the more I am certain that wellness is so much more than just checking off the diet and exercise boxes. It’s motivation, purpose, passion, and living a day-to-day life that you can be proud of. So yeah, I’ll probably talk about that stuff too.

I hope you’ll stick with me.